Good evening, I'm Dave Cotten.
And I'm Shelley Monahan.
Straight ahead on Q6 Local News at 6, a warning from the Sheriff's Department to shoppers.
Watch your purse.
I'm Jeff DeVoice live in the Spokane Valley.
Purse snatchers on the loose in Spokane County.
Dozens of victims in just the last two weeks.
We'll tell you what you need to know and where these purse snatchings are happening coming
up in the live report.
And a man who molested a young girl in an Idaho library is sentenced to prison.
And new snow means lots of new traffic accidents.
And lots of new snow in the mountains means a great practice venue for those young Olympic
hopefuls.
I'll have that story coming up.
You're watching KHQ Channel 6, your local news station, home of the Winter Olympics.
Q6 Local News at 6 starts now.
Just the rush of the holiday season, I just wasn't as careful as I normally am.
Man, she paid for it.
A week ago, this woman's purse was snatched and she is not alone.
About 50 similar cases have been reported over the last few weeks.
Q6 Local News reporter Jeff DeVoice is live where one of the first in a string of thefts
occurred.
Jeff, authorities say that the thieves have a slick way of getting what they want.
That's right.
They say there are two people working together, a man and a woman, and they're striking mostly
at grocery stores like the Albertsons here at Trenton Argonne.
And here's how they do it.
The man distracts the shopper and while she's turned her back, the woman grabs the purse
that was left right in the shopping cart.
That's exactly what happened to Catherine Cole.
She was grocery shopping and didn't realize that someone had stolen her purse until she
went to the cashier.
By then it was too late to do anything.
The thieves were gone and had already charged a $600 cash advance on her credit card.
Oh, it's not a big surprise because I've seen a lot of women leave their handbags on their
cart and we really do need to keep our handbags on our person rather than leaving them in
the cart.
It's just an easy target for thieves or purse snatchers.
Catherine hit the nail right on the head.
Authorities say women should always hold their purses close to the body and if you set your
purse down, you're just asking for trouble.
And although the crime started here in the Spokane Valley, authorities tell us that now
this crime spree has spread throughout.